I have been looking for this CD forever! I've always loved Batdorf and Mclean. I was so happy to finally find it on the internet! CD Baby did such an awesome job. They had the CD shipped to me so fast, and in perfect condition!! I will for sure use CD Baby's services again anytime in the future. They really truly care about whether or not it gets to the person. I'm really lovin' my CD, and it's mostly thanks to CD Baby. So..............thank you.
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You live your life, day-to-day. Sometimes it's not easy and sometimes it's easier. You can go on for a very long time, just putting one foot in front of the other, your head down to the elements, just to survive and keep the people and things in your life who/that mean the most to you. But sometimes it gets really difficult. Sometimes we need inspiration. That's where the music comes in. 

This CD - and, I'm discovering, most of the music composed in partnership by John Batdorf and Michael McLean - is about values, morals and ethics, accentuating the `good' in life; an all-encompassing value I can get along with. 

I've said once before, in another review, that I am a lyrics fiend. I will be predisposed to liking a song if I read the lyrics and they go along with either my beliefs or my values or hit a chord from something in my life that rings true. It's the lyrics that draw me in. A song can be pretty as all get out, but if the words suck? You won't hear/see me wasting my time with it. 

Sometimes you'll hear a lyric that will just be so brilliant that you can't help but note and remember it. Such is the case with the song that starts off this CD, "She's the Girl". Whoever was lucky enough to have this song written for her, wow, okay? The lyrics in here are lovely and my especial favorite is "she's the brush strokes in every Monet" ... being a Monet fan and having been to the gardens that inspired his brushstrokes, well ... what a high compliment. 

The brilliant lyrics don't stop here. No, they keep going all throughout the CD, song by song, and that's one of the things that make 'Don't You Know' one of my newest favorites. 

There's something about this CD that tells me that you can't "get it" with regard to the emotions and values put forth here unless you've lived some. To back up this thought is the second song, "It's Not Love", which isn't something you're going to really understand unless you'd been there and done that and made it last. It just makes sense. Infatuation, lust, and other possible beginnings to a relationship just don't become real love until the two of you have been at the starting line, run the race, stumbled, fallen and helped each other up and strove to finish the race together. 

And then comes "Forgiveness" and here comes another value that may be difficult for many of us, including myself. This is a pretty awesome song and I often wonder about its origins; however, it's fairly generalized. Like I said at the beginning of this paragraph, forgiveness is one of the hardest things to conquer. I have a fence or two in my own background that never really got mended and may never get that repair in the traditional sense. Sometimes, though, you just have to walk away and let it go (but that's another song ... funnily enough, on this very CD!). 

After which comes "I Will Not Be Afraid" which now ranks up there with my top favorite songs of all time. When I first heard the song and then bought the CD it became a very big help to me at the time. It remains my belief that certain songs come into your life exactly when you need them and that's what happened with this one. I think I may have worn this track thin. The other impressive thing about this song is that I have noticed that it is on all three available Batdorf and McLean CD's, and John almost always plays it during his live solo spots. 

Walking away after you've had your heart broken has never - in my experience - been defined so well in a song until I heard "It's Only My Heart". In my experience, however, I have tended to be the heartbreaker. Which doesn't make the experience any easier; it still hurts, either way. There was one instance that has affected my entire life afterwards. And when I remember how hard it was for him ... I can listen to this song now and understand what he went through. At the same time, I can hear this song from either direction, and understand the pain. 

"Promised Land". This is the only song on this CD that skates a little too close to things I'd rather not discuss in public. My promised land is probably a whole helluva lot different from yours. However, the song does address this in sort of an abstract fashion. It's personal. It's inside you. There's no address. You don't have to go to a concrete building and hobnob with costumes and ancient rituals to find it. And that's all I'm going to say about that (because I've probably already said too much already). 

"Don't You Know", "Never Had to Ask", and "Heartbeat Away" are three songs that have held up my writing of this review and I realized that it's because I like to listen to them but they're less meaningful to me at the moment than the other songs herein. They're experiences I haven't been close to in a while, so the songs kind of fall across me like mild water until I get to the ones that mean a lot to me. 

"How Much Rain". This song comes as close to sarcasm as I've ever heard from John. However, I like it a lot, and it probably defines why the previous three songs don't really make that much of a difference for me right now. For the past 25-odd years I've approached life from a business- and caretaker- perspective. It feels right to me if I'm taking care of my friends and, in reverse, when those people that I count as friends have made a difference for me. But for anyone to try and go deeper than that - well, that's where this song comes in - no one can count that high, no one can go that deep, and no one should even try. 

"Let It Go" is the final song on this CD and what a wrap-up to a whole boatload of emotions and inspiration. It does my soul good to know that something that came hard won to me after many years of guilt and soul-searching, is not the mistake that people outside of the experience always told me it was. Sometimes you just have to forgive yourself and then you just have to have the courage to walk away. Forgiveness is not necessarily the same as letting it go; but when you finally do allow yourself the freedom to let go, no matter how painful, you can move forward with your life. Oh, yeah, I've been there once or twice, and learned from it. So it's soul-satisfying to hear "Let It Go" now from musicians I truly respect because it just reinforces something I learned the hard way. 

John's voice blows me away. Seriously. It's sort of rough and tumble in a way, slightly reminiscent of singers like Bryan Adams and Don Henley, but with a quality, resonance, and timbre all its own. He sings every song as if he believes in the words he's singing and I have no reason to think that he doesn't. This is not a dishonest person, or an actor singing songs meant to get to you but without feeling behind it. I just think that John and Michael write songs they believe in and John sings them the very same way. Not only does that honesty come across, but it also makes the songs even more inspirational. It makes me want to stop and listen carefully to what's being said. 

And then comes the music itself. I think it's important for a song to have a melody that's fairly catchy in order for it to have life beyond the initial writing of it. I can love the lyrics all I want, but if the song as a whole doesn't impress me, then I won't listen to it as often. I can't think of one song, yet, of John and Michael's, that I don't like - it's just that there are some songs that speak more to me and my personal experience than others. I have a lot of CD's and there are specific single pieces of music I listen to when I need to (among them are songs by CSN, Judy Collins, Amanda Marshall, Melissa Etheridge, and Jim Byrnes), things that work well on long drives (Jeff Beck, Jan Hammer, Talking Heads, Indigo Girls, Yes, Genesis, and Van Halen come to mind), and otherwise. There are musicians who are pure perfection in their words and how they stretch their voice and in the execution of their created music. I love bluesy music and bluegrass and some jazz, but none of these have constant staying power for me. None (well, there is one other but his first CD is still forthcoming) till now have come this close to something meaningful to my life - something I can listen to all of the tracks of and get reinforcement from while enjoying the melodies and the voice and the lyrics all at the same time. This is music that will never get old. 

I've only heard one other CD of late that comes as close as this one to being a constant favorite of mine. That's one that recently became available, also from John and Michael: 'Batdorf and McLean: The Early Years'. But that's a whole `nuther review (to come).
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I've been searching for years for Batdorf & Rodney on CD. And no, this isn't "Off The Shelf", but it's almost as good. Where have I heard She's The Girl before I got this CD??  But would somebody please please PLEASE bring out "Off The Shelf" on CD?! Hell, I'd buy at least 6 of them, 'cause I'd wear out at least 3 of them in the first month or two!
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While looking for Batdorf and Rodney this transplanted midwesterner was disappointed that Off the Shelf is not available--but this may be the next best thing!
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